This application is submitted by the organizers of the 1989 March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation Clinical Genetics Conference, entitled "Clinical Applications of Molecular Genetics," to be held July 9-12 in Boston. Funds requested are to defray travel and housing costs for 20 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior investigators to attend and actively participate in the conference. The focus of this 21st conference in this series is molecular genetics, particularly the recombinant DNA approaches now being used successfully to understand normal genetic mechanisms and a growing number of serious genetic disorders. This theme allows us to bring together investigators in a variety of basic and clinical sciences to focus on birth defects. The conference consists of invited lectures, contributed papers, poster sessions, clinical case presentations and informal discussions. Here attendees can be educated about and stimulated to pursue novel aspects of their special areas of expertise. The planners of this conference have taken several steps to insure that the clinical relevance of each presentation is apparent to members of this diverse audience. We believe that this conference is an ideal forum at an opportune time to bring together clinical geneticists, dysmorphologists, molecular geneticists, biochemists, teratologists, cell biologists, cytogeneticists and embryologists. Based on the experience of the Clinical Delineation of Birth Defects meetings of the late 1960's, participation of young investigators in this 1989 Conference will contribute importantly to productive collaborations in the coming decade. The individuals listed below form a committee that will evaluate written applications for travel support and will distribute funds on a competitive basis. The criteria for selecting travel award grantees include submission of an abstract of high quality original research, particularly when the research is selected for presentation, and financial need.